Pakistan’s Supreme Court rejected the application from Mumtaz Qadri who murdered the former governor of Punjab for criticising the country’s controversial blasphemy laws.

Qadri, who was working at Salmaan’s bodyguard, gunned him down in January 2011.

But a three judge panel rejected his petition, saying that he had confessed to the crime, and been sentenced to death.

Qadri was arrested soon after the killing and tried by an anti-terrorism court, where he was sentenced.

The court said that Qadri’s lawyers had failed to establish blasphemy in the case – the justification he used for committing the murder.